Job Market Paper
Children and Household Burden: The Influence of Pre-Birth Couple Norms
When a couple has their first child, housework rises sharply, but who absorbs that shock is influenced by how the couple divided housework before the birth. Using longitudinal data from the HILDA Survey, I categorize couples by their pre-birth division of household work and estimate the differential responses to a first birth. The less an individual did relative to others of their gender, the more housework they added. Couples where the women did the majority of the housework before a birth had the smallest changes, while couples where the men did the majority pre-birth make the largest adjustments and were the most likely to reverse roles. Partners perceive this shift accurately: women feel that they do more, men feel that they do less. Despite the real and perceived reallocation of household tasks, I find no corresponding differential effect on relationship satisfaction or happiness.
Works in Progress
The Effect of Title IX-induced Adjustment on Girls' Sports Involvement on Family Formation
Labor Market Effects of Postpartum Medicaid Expansion (with Megan Rice)
Stay-at-Home-Fatherhood and Household Lifetime Income